The weather has caused some challenges at Big White Ski Resort this holiday season.

The Powder Chair had to be closed on Dec. 27 after a heavy buildup of rime ice encased the haul cables and running wheels, and many visitors arrived without their skis or baggage.

Big White vice-president Michael J. Ballingall says the weather disruptions at airports across North America have thrown a wrench in the plans of hundreds of visitors.

“There’s certain things we do for that. We’ll get them on a set of rental skis. But if they don’t have clothing, [such as] their helmets, their clothing – they don’t have their bags, their gloves, their goggles, that becomes tougher. They have to make some decisions on whether they’re going to buy or whether they’re going to wait.”

The freeze-thaw cycle we’ve been experiencing in the Okanagan is also having an impact on operations. On Tuesday, ice caused a chain of events that shut down the Powder Chair.

“Take a piece of rope and put six inches of ice around. It takes time to open the lift,” Ballingall said.

“Once the Powder Chair opened, a piece of ice fell off the chair and hit what’s called a sheave pin. A sheave pin is a safety mechanism that if it breaks for any reason, the lift stops. Well, this piece of ice broke two. That doesn’t normally happen."

He says the safety procedure requires staff to manually climb the tower and inspect the system.

Big White posted a lengthy ‘Important Safety Update’ on its Facebook page explaining the challenges.

“Protocols were put in place as soon as possible by mountain operations and ski patrol to limit the number of skiers and snowboarders accessing that area. On one of our busiest days of the season, we put up rope lines and stop signs as soon as humanly possible. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to catch everyone in a timely fashion, and numerous guests arrived at the bottom of the lift, which resulted in them having to be turned around and routed through various out trails,” reads the post.

The resort says that lift mechanics and operators start their days at approximately 6:30 a.m. to inspect and go through start-up procedures. “The wind has been our enemy for some time at Gem Lake. It is impossible to run the lift with passengers in conditions that we deem to be unsafe. We take into account wind direction, speed, humidity, and temperature. This can also affect the top of the Alpine T-bar, Ridge, Snowghost, Bullet, Cliff, Gondola, and sometimes even the Black Forest. We can assure you we make these decisions with safety as our number one priority.”

Conditions are much better on Thursday, with plenty of powder after 14 cm of new snow fell in the past 24 hours. The forecast calls for 1-3 cm of snow, with a high of -5 C. wind gusts could reach 40 km/h.

Ballingall says Jan. 2 will be a big check-out day for many of their guests. However, an influx of Australians is due to arrive starting the next day.